Second Sunday of Easter Year A

Gospel Reading: John 20: 19-31

19 In the evening of the same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and

stood among them. He said to them, "Peace be with you,"

20 and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord,

21 and he said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you."

22 After saying this he breathed on them and said:"Receive the Holy Spirit.

23 For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained."

24 Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

25 When the disciples said, "We have seen the Lord," he answered, "Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe."

26 Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. "Peace be with you" he said.

27 Then he spoke to Thomas, "Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe."

28 Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!"

29 Jesus said to him: "You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe."

30 There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book.

31 These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing this you may have life through his name.

Meditation

Today's gospel reading, like all of St John's gospel, is an interweaving of several themes. It is not possible to follow up all the themes together; we must focus on one at a time, going deeply into it and allowing it to reveal some deep truth about Jesus, about ourselves and about life.

In this reflection I invite you to focus on the apostle Thomas; this is in accord with the Church's liturgical tradition for the Second Sunday of Easter. Therefore, although the reading includes two of Jesus' resurrection appearances - both of them deeply moving - we stay with the second, the dialogue between Jesus and Thomas, and let the earlier appearance provide the context. We are free to identify either with Thomas or with Jesus, but not with both at the same time.

We need to be clear on how we understand Thomas. The popular interpretation puts him in a bad light, as "doubting Thomas". This, however, is not the movement of the text which culminates in Thomas' admirable act of faith, the most explicit in the New Testament - "My Lord and my God".

We are more in accord with the spirit of the text, therefore, when we look at Thomas as a model of faith. He was right to insist that before he could believe in Jesus' resurrection, he must see the holes the nails made in his hands, put his finger into the holes and his hand into the great wound made by the centurion's lance.

Thomas then teaches us the important lesson that we must not separate the resurrection from the cross, since we are called to be followers of Jesus. He also teaches us the truth of the Church and of our individual spiritual growth. We cannot live the life of grace, the "risen life", authentically unless we bear in our bodies the wounds of the cross.

This means being conscious that we develop the capacity to love and to be loved only by dying to ourselves. Our wounds are also a constant reminder of our frailty and that it is God's grace that raises us up to new life.

St Paul 's epistles show that the first Christians needed the corrective of Thomas' faith. They tended to relate with the risen Jesus without reference to his crucifixion. They forgot that they were called to be "followers of Jesus crucified," choosing to die with him so that they could rise with him (see especially 1 Corinthians 1).

We Christians fall into the same error today when our lives and our teachings proclaim an abstract "disembodied" Jesus, dispenser of graces and teacher of morality; we forget the historical person who was put to death for proclaiming the kingdom of God .

Thomas professes the true faith of the church. We too must insist that the Jesus we follow is the true Jesus, the one whose risen body bears the wounds of Calvary .

Jesus is the model leader and spiritual guide. He is pleased to give Thomas the assurance he is looking for, and then challenges him to look forward to the day when he will believe without seeing - always in the Jesus who passes through death to resurrection.

The blessedness of believing without seeing came from the experience of the early church. Jesus is not moralising but inviting Thomas (and us) to celebrate great people of faith - in our communities and worldwide - who take up their cross with confidence in the resurrection.

Prayer 

We thank you in particular for the great day when our Church publicly asked forgiveness from other religions and cultures. We thank you for Pope John Paul who, like Jesus with St Thomas, invited us to see the holes that the nails of arrogance and self-righteousness made into the body of Christ, and to put our fingers into the holes, to put our hands into the huge wound which the lust for power made in his side, so that we would recognise how, just as you raised Jesus from the dead, you do not allow his Body, the Church, to remain in the tomb, but always raise her up to new life.

Lord, we thank you for the times when reconciliation emerged triumphantly from the tomb of conflict:

the spirit of dialogue between our Church and Jews, Muslims, Hindus and African traditional religions;

the European Union created by former enemies;

the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland ;

the peace process in the Middle East .

Do not let us forget the terrible legacy of hatred and resentment which had to be overcome; invite us to put our fingers into the holes made by the nails, our hands into the great wound made by lances, so that we can recognise with awe and wonder the spark of your divine life that is within us all.

Remind us too of those who worked for peace during the long years of conflict when they seemed to be working in vain. How blessed were they who did not see and yet continued to believe in your power to bring new life into the world. 

"Whoever sees anything of God, sees nothing of God."

Meister Eckhart

Lord, lead us to the blessedness of not seeing and believing.

"Go for broke, always try to do too much, dispense with safety nets, aim for the stars. Salman Rushdie

Lord, we thank you for friends, leaders and spiritual guides who challenge us as Jesus challenged Thomas. When we commit ourselves to a cause because we have tested its reality, they invite us to experience the blessedness of believing without seeing.

"Beware of the seduction of leaving the poor to think about them." Jean Vanier

Lord, forgive us that we want to help those in need without sharing their pain; we look for their resurrection but do not want to see their wounds:

young people have been deeply hurt and we serve them with pious exhortations;

we become impatient with those who continue to mourn the death of a spouse or a child;

we think we can restore a broken relationship by merely saying we are sorry;

we propose reconciliation between warring factions without acknowledging past wrongs;

we pray for peace in the world and do not agonize over its terrible injustices.

We thank you for people like Thomas who will not let us away with easy solutions;

they insist that we must see the holes nails have made in the hands of victims,

put our fingers into the holes and our hands into wounds lances have made in their sides,

and only then believe that they have within them the capacity to rise to new life.

"We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs." Step 5 of the Twelve Step Method of Alcoholics Anonymous

Lord, when we are converted from an addiction to alcohol, drugs, power, or sex we are so anxious to make a new start that we forget the hurt which was at the root of our problem,

the loneliness of our childhood,

the sense of racial inferiority,

our disability,

the fear of failure.